U2’s With Or Without You was nearly scrapped – until The Edge laid down his guitar parts
U2‘s hit With Or Without You might not have seen the light of day if it hadn’t been for The Edge‘s guitar work, according to the author of a book about their discography.
Aaron J. Sams, author of U2: Song by Song, makes the revelation in an interview on Booked on Rock, explaining that the gift of a prototype Fender afforded the guitarist a breakthrough.
READ MORE: The Edge on new U2 music, says he’s “very excited about the electric guitar again”
“At one point, they talked about walking away from that song,” Sams explained (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “The breakthrough came when the Edge was given a prototype Infinite Guitar [by Fender]. Gavin Friday and Bono took it away to work on it when the band was ready to abandon the song. It was Gavin that convinced Bono to take it away and work on it a little bit further, but in the meantime, Edge was noodling around with this Infinite Guitar.
“There was only two or three of those guitars created. A Canadian [Michael Brook] came up with that invention. And somewhere along the way, Bono brought back what he had been working on, Edge brought back what he had been working on, and they smushed it all together and out came With or Without You, which I don’t think you could go anywhere as in 1987 and not hear that song on the radio.”
What’s more, Where The Streets Have No Name also came close to being scrapped. “Brian Eno was getting ready to throw that one into the garbage, and one of the engineers rescued it that day and said, ‘No, no. We’re going to pull that aside.’ And the band worked on that and worked on that,” explains Sams. “And they thought they had something special there, but they couldn’t get to the finish line. But eventually, they got there.
“I’m so glad they did because if there’s a moment in their live show that I never want to do without, it is being able to turn around when the lights come up during Where the Streets Have No Name and looking at the faces behind you. It’s pure joy in the audience when that song is being performed.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
